Report: Raiders hire Chip Kelly as Pete Carroll’s offensive coordinator

Former Seahawks offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell will NOT be the Raiders OC as anticipated.

Here’s a little Sunday surprise regarding the Las Vegas Raiders offensive coordinator spot.

It was expected that ex-Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll would reunite with ex-Seahawks OC Darrell Bevell and make him his play-caller in Vegas. Not so fast! Out of nowhere, former Oregon head coach and Ohio State offensive coordinator is returning to the NFL to be the Raiders OC.

There wasn’t any inkling that Kelly was a candidate for this job but here we are. The only reported Raiders OC interviews were Bevell, the current Miami Dolphins quarterbacks coach, and Houston Texans quarterbacks coach Jerrod Johnson, whom at this point was clearly a Rooney Rule candidate.

Kelly just won a national championship with the Buckeyes after six seasons as UCLA head coach. Known as a great offensive mind who had tremendous success with Oregon, Kelly had a promising start to his Philadelphia Eagles coaching career when he took the Eagles to the playoffs, but then he got front office control in 2015 and he was the master of his own demise. A single season with the talent-starved San Francisco 49ers in 2016 predictably ended in a 2-14 campaign and a firing.

This will be Kelly’s first NFL job since that 49ers stint and his first NFL offensive coordinator role. You may recall that Kelly interviewed for Seahawks OC last season but Seattle went with Ryan Grubb.

Interestingly enough, Carroll has not gone for familiarity among his main coordinators. He retained defensive coordinator Patrick Graham and special teams coordinator Tom McMahon, while going with Kelly over Bevell. This isn’t to say Carroll won’t have other former (or event current) Seahawks assistants filling out his staff; John Glenn is the Raiders’ new linebackers coach and longtime front office executive Matt Capurro left Seattle for Vegas.